Matching Items (4)
Description
This paper describes the research done to attempt to scale up thrusts produced by ionic wind thrusters, or "lifters" to magnitudes needed to power a 2 kg hobbyist remote-control airplane. It includes background information on the Biefeld-Brown effect and the thrust it produces, an experiment that attempted to prove that thrust can be scaled up from smaller ionic wind thrusters to larger scales, and two models predicting thruster geometries and power sources needed to reach these thrusts. An ionic wind thruster could not be created that would power the hobbyist remote as a high-voltage power source with voltage and power high enough could not be obtained. Thrusters were created for the experiment using balsa wood, aluminum foil, and thin copper wire, and were powered using a 30 kV transformer. The thrusters attempted to test for correlations between thrust, electrode length, and current; electric field strength, and thrust; and thrust optimization through opening up air flow through the collector electrode. The experiment was inconclusive as all the thrusters failed to produce measurable thrust. Further experimentation suggests the chief failure mode is likely conduction from the collector electrode to the nearby large conductive surface of the scale.
ContributorsHaug, Andrew James (Author) / White, Daniel (Thesis director) / Takahashi, Timothy (Committee member) / Middleton, James (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Military Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
This research report investigates the feasibility of using RFID in Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) Systems for autonomous vehicles, specifically driver-less cars. Driver-less cars are becoming more prominent in society but must be designed to integrate with the current transportation infrastructure. Current research in TSR systems use image processing as well as LIDAR to identify traffic signs, yet these are highly dependent on lighting conditions, camera quality and sign visibility. The read rates of current TSR systems in literature are approximately 96 percent. The usage of RFID in TSR systems can improve the performance of traditional TSR systems. An RFID TSR was designed for the Autonomous Pheeno Test-bed at the Arizona State University (ASU) Autonomous Collective Systems (ACS) Laboratory. The system was tested with varying parameters to see the effect of the parameters on the read rate. It was found that high reader strength and low tag distance had a maximum read rate of 96.3 percent, which is comparable to existing literature. It was proven that an RFID TSR can perform as well as traditional TSR systems, and has the capacity to improve accuracy when used alongside RGB cameras and LIDAR.
ContributorsMendoza, Madilyn Kido (Author) / Berman, Spring (Thesis director) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
To determine the effects of exhaust heat recovery systems on small engines, an experiment was performed to measure the power losses of an engine with restricted exhaust flow. In cooperation with ASU's SAE Formula race team, a water brake dynamometer was refurbished and connected to the 2017 racecar engine. The engine was mounted with a diffuser disc exhaust to restrict flow, and a pressure sensor was installed in the O2 port to measure pressure under different restrictions. During testing, problems with the equipment prevented suitable from being generated. Using failure root cause analysis, the failure modes were identified and plans were made to resolve those issues. While no useful data was generated, the project successfully rebuilt a dynamometer for students to use for future engine research.
ContributorsRoss, Zachary David (Author) / Middleton, James (Thesis director) / Steele, Bruce (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Medical technology, while improving greatly with time, often requires a sacrifice in the form of invasiveness in order to reach target areas within the body, such as the brain, liver, or heart. This project aims to utilize a magnetic, flexible needle design to reach these target areas for surgery and drug administration with minimal invasiveness. The metallic needle tip is guided by an external system consisting of a UR16e robotic arm with a magnetic end effector. As a longer running project, the primary focuses of this research are to develop the system by which the robotic arm guides the needle, investigate and implement fiber Bragg grating sensors as a means of real time path imaging and feedback, and conduct preliminary tests to validate that the needle is accurately controlled by the robotic arm. Testing with different mediums such as gel or phantom tissue, and eventually animal experiments will follow in a future publication due to time constraints.
ContributorsNienhouse, Lucas (Author) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Thesis director) / Lee, Hyunglae (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05